1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to electrical power supply systems, and more particularly, to methods, apparatus, computer-readable media, signals, and programs for managing energy supplied by an energy supply.
2. Description of Related Art
Many applications involve an electrical load, powered by an energy supply. For example, electric automobiles typically include traction motors, powered by various types of batteries. Similarly, a flashlight typically includes a resistor connected to a battery. Thus, referring to FIG. 1, an energy supply such as that shown at 20, is typically connected to a load such as that shown at 22, for example. For ease of illustration, the load is represented as a resistor, although it will be appreciated that it is not entirely accurate to model some types of loads as resistors.
However, the present inventor has observed that some types of loads connected to energy supplies in the above fashion result in wasted energy. For example, in many cases an electrical load will transfer, dissipate or consume more energy than necessary in order to complete the task that is required of it. In order to generate the energy that is being dissipated or consumed by the load, the energy supply must deplete at least an equivalent amount of its own potential energy store (in fact, slightly more, due to inefficiencies and imperfections in any system). As a result, the duration of the energy supply is shorter than it would have been, if not for the wasted energy unnecessarily transferred or consumed by the load.